Overlapping Funnels – Decision Making Part II

The Sales Funnel Concept directly relates to the Recruiting Funnel used by many companies and search firms. It would seem that the Recruiting funnel would directly relate to the Job Search Funnel and it does to a certain degree. Here again, perspective is important. In order to understand when the two processes are in alignment, it is important for both the recruiter and the candidate to not only know where they are in the process but how that position changes decision making on both sides. Recruiters and managers need to think like a candidate and job seekers need to look at their situation from the vantage point of the recruiter. From the job seeker perspective, there are a number of parallels to the sales funnel in that numerous opportunities must be evaluated before deciding on a final acceptance of an offer. Most find that they have to kiss a lot of frogs to find their prince. It is helpful to know that those on the other side doing the search for the best talent are also kissing frogs. It is important to know where candidates are in the system from both sides of the interviewing table.

This fact is always true: The current position on the map must be known to make informed decisions on next steps.

A previous article on The Resume Black Hole used an actual example in hiring a Director of Human Resources for one client to demonstrate the Recruiting Funnel.

• Attracting and Sourcing – There were 166 (100%) total candidates at outer lip of funnel from all sources
• Screening Applicants – There were two levels of screening for this opening:
  • 92 (55.4%) were selected for further review, primarily by computer since location was key (Client would not relocate). It is important to note that the remaining 74 are not discarded but remained available if no best candidate was found in the first cut.
  • 16 (9.6%) were fine-screened by the recruiter from those selected on the first cut. Again, the remaining 76 were held for later use.
• Selecting Candidates – 7 (4.2%) were short-listed after an in-depth phone interview. Two candidates eliminated themselves from consideration, one for money and one due to the commute.
• Interviewing – 3 (1.8%) were selected by hiring manager from the short list and two were held as backup candidates.
• Hiring and Onboarding – 1 (0.6%)

A quick look at the funnel producing this hire from the original applicants shows a successful campaign on a key position. From the candidate perspective 99.4% of them may have had a different opinion about this being a success, but nobody was lost in a black hole. 100% of all applicants were informed that their application was in play. Those who were phone screened received a follow-up phone call to bring it to closure and a follow-up email was sent to all others. This is not the warm and fuzzy response that most recruiters and candidates would like, but it is reality. Looking at one job in isolation among possibly hundreds of others means that tough decisions have to be made.

The Job Search Funnel that overlaps this one complicates the dynamics of keeping track. It is important that each individual keep records similar to those kept by companies so that they know where they are on the grid. There are some great *guides on how to do this, but the concept is the same: opportunities are many and fine tuning the search narrows the field until the bottom of the funnel spits out one job. As the funnel narrows for each opportunity, decisions need to be focused on tailoring the approach to match skills and accomplishments to job requirements. Realistic application to high probability job matches shows that the candidate is thinking like the recruiter, asking themselves, “Would I hire me for that job? Is my background what I would want if I had to depend on a hire for key deliverables?” That insight makes it easier to visualize a presentation of deliverables that will match the expectations of those looking to hire.

Funneling is a visual tool to aid in simplifying the decisions necessary for progressing through a system. Thinking of it as a distorted tunnel or folded plane can help to visualize how complex interrelationships can be focused on positive results.

*Read also:

• How To Create A Sales Funnel For Job Search, by Tim Tyrell-Smith, TimsStrategy.com, April 18, 2010.

 
Image credit: rolffimages / 123RF Stock Photo (modified)